SOUTH AFRICAN GOVT TO BUILD SIX MILLION HOUSES BY 2019

The South African government is working to meet its target of delivering six million houses and subsidies to beneficiaries by 2019, says Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini.

Briefing the media here Monday on the worl of the Social Protection, Community and Human Development cluster of departments, she said: “We are excited that over 56% of our housing beneficiaries are women.”

The briefing was aimed at giving an update on the progress made in the second quarter towards achieving the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP): Vision 2030.

Dlamini said the government this year celebrated the delivery of more than 4.3 million houses and subsidies. The government has set a target of upgrading informal settlements and improving the living conditions of 750,000 households by 2019.

According to Dlamini, as of Sept 30, 2016, a total of 205,782 households had been upgraded. The Department of Human Settlements, together with the nine provinces and all the metropolitan municipalities, had identified interventions to fast-track the delivery of this target.

“One of the decisions taken was to establish a credible database of all informal settlements with detailed information on the level of services in each, the planning and tenure status and the proposed funding sources,” she said.

Dlamini said the cluster was tasked with the responsibility of increasing the number of home loans granted by the private sector and Human Settlements’ Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to households in the affordable housing market.